Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other just as fair;And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Are beautifully written and composed Have a plethora of layered meanings Can be enjoyed by virtually anyone,

regardless of cognitive development stage

How Frost’s poems are interpreted by readers in different stages of Piaget’s cognitive development: Concrete Operational Formal Post formal

Children between ages 7 and 11 Gain better understanding of mental

operations Begin thinking logically about concrete

events Have difficulty understanding abstract

or hypothetical concepts

A child in this stage would likely see only the two roads, the woods, and the traveler

Not likely to see anything beyond the traveler standing at a fork in the road where one road is well-traveled and the other is not

Likely to think the traveler is simply trying to make up his mind

Follows concrete stage Developing ability to think about

abstract concepts Children begin to think about

consequences of actions and/or events

An individual in this stage would likely perceive the traveler the same someone in the concrete operational stage, but…

Perhaps see that the roads represent two different paths in life or different choices that could be made.

Follows Formal stage Postformal thought involves working

with and organizing multiple contradictory formal logical systems

This logical “superorganization” occurs within a specific context at a specific time

A person in the postformal stage could see themselves as the traveler

Imagine themselves on the less traveled road and picture all the previous travelers, and perhaps wonder what thoughts may have been in their minds as they traveled the same road

Wonder what lies ahead on the road and to what destination(s) it leads

Question their decision Wonder what their life would be like if

they had taken the other road See themselves as a child (in the

concrete operational stage) and also as a formal-thinking person and know how they would have responded at that time in their life had they been presented with the same choice